Leadership magazine Nov/Dec 2014 V 44 No 2 | Page 31

instruction that can make schools more equitable environments, and explicit examinations of race, class, culture, and power (see
sidebar at right).

Monitoring the progress of equity work
When conducting a school review, we
observe classrooms, interview school leaders and hold focus groups with teachers to
rate the school on each item on the rubric.
Reviews are generally done in one intensive
day of data collection by three staff members
– some who have been working at the school
and some that have not (to reduce bias).
Before the review, we spend substantial
time making sure that all members of our
field staff share a nuanced understanding
of the ratings so we can be confident that a
school will receive similar ratings no matter
who the raters are. This training has been effective: an internal analysis of raters’ scores
in 2013 revealed that our field staff tend to
rate schools very similarly.
Yet, after each school review, the raters go
through a triangulation process to arrive at
final ratings that reflect a consensus based
on evidence. We then discuss the results of
the School Transformation Reviews with
our partner schools so they can understand
and monitor their growth.
Ratings are done on a six-stage scale. The
scale pertains to the prevalence, intentionality, and consistency of implementation of
each item. At the lowest end of the scale is
the “no evidence” rating, indicating that a
given practice – for example, using culturally relevant materials – is not being implemented at all.
The highest possible rating is “sustaining,” which indicates that the practice is
being implemented almost always and that
there are structures in place to maintain the
practice without any support from Partners.

School Transformation Review Rating Scale
Stage 1: No evidence. Essential practice
is not implemented (0 percent implementation) or not true.
Stage 2: Readiness. Implementation of
essential practice is rare and sporadic (1-25
percent implementation) or minimally/infrequently true.
Stage 3: Emerging. Implementation of es

School Transformation Rubric:
20 essential practices that focus on equity
Results-oriented leadership:
1. Sense of urgency
2. Values and beliefs (about social justice, schooling, teaching and learning)
3. Vision for students
4. Examination of race, culture, class and power

Systems for professional learning:
5. Student achievement goals
6. Examination of race, culture, class and power
7. Collective learning around race, culture, class and power

Core instructional program:
8. Culturally relevant materials
9. Equitable participation protocols (strategies that encourage all students to take part
in lessons)
10. Relationships with students
11. Build on students’ prior knowledge
12. Higher-order thinking skills
13. Individual needs (instruction for varying skill levels and learning needs)
14. Cooperative learning
15. Establish relevance
16. Growth mindset (encouraging effort, persistence and problem solving)
17. Use of disaggregated data (looking for patterns of achievement by race, culture,
and language status and using this data to adjust instruction)

Items specifically related to English language development:
18. Accessible content
19. Structured language practice (purposeful opportunities for oral language practice)
20. Language objectives (that explicitly address English Language Development
needs)

sential practice is occurring in some areas,
but is neither systematic, nor consistent (2650 percent implementation) or partially/
sometimes true.
Stage 4: Implementing. Implementation
of essential practice is systematic, but is not
consistent (51-75 percent implementation)
or partially/often true.
Stage 5: Transforming. Implementation
of essential practice is systematic and consistent (76-100 percent implementation) or
mostly/almost always true.
Stage 6. Sustaining. Implementation of essential practice is systematic and consistent
(76-100 percent implementation) or mostly/
almost always true. In addition, there are

policies, structures, and cultural conditions
in place to sustain the essential practice.

A success story
Ideally, by the end of a partnership, a
school would reach at least the “implementing” stage on the majority of essential practices. Although we have not accomplished
that goal with all of our partner schools (65
schools since 2005), we can celebrate substantial progress by many of our partners.
For example, Redwood Elementary (a
pseudonym) has recently made great strides
in its equity work. Between 2011 and 2013,
it improved on 18 of the 20 equity-focused
items on the School Transformation Rubric.
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